Dayganistan wrote:

South Reinkalistan wrote:fuck superheroes, tell stories of individual heroism by people with no exceptional powers that put superman to shame.

There's so much potential for this if people want to work character based narrative into their war RPs. But no let's just post one liners where we spam numbers. And not even through the perspective of a general, through the perspective of some omnipotent force akin to the player in EU4.

I deeply enjoyed Ralph Peters' Red Army because of the narrative around military staff. It was really fleshed out to show how rivalries among different individuals exist alongside them cooperating and how even well-laid out plans fumble...or conversely, how things going too well can lead to overwork and strain morale and thinking abilities.

It was definitely more intriguing than portraying the Russians as cardboard cutout villains...I guess...

Not sure how that goes in NS military RPs though. I steer clear of those because of the complaints here and because my RP skills are rusty AF.

Caribbean Confederation wrote:

Dayganistan wrote:There's so much potential for this if people want to work character based narrative into their war RPs. But no let's just post one liners where we spam numbers. And not even through the perspective of a general, through the perspective of some omnipotent force akin to the player in EU4.

And that's when they're trying to go for a semblance of quality.

No it's always "Exampleland sends 10,000 troops to attack Example City" and it's left at that. Aren't we at all interested in the intense, house to house urban fighting in Example City through the eyes of a 23 year old infantry platoon commander fresh out of officer training? Or do we just want to slam abstract stat blocks together?

Gandoor wrote:'WHER E IS SEASON 3 CARDS?' 'When is season 3 of cards happening?' 'Any update on season 3 of trading cards?'

Look, I get that the NS trading cards are a popular feature and it has been said been said by the admins that will remain a permanent feature but don't y'all think the admin team (who reminder are just volunteers) have more pressing shit to do than work on the new season of the April Fools' feature from 2018? I'm not saying it'll never happen but come on.

As a random aside, who else remembers when NationStates would play actual pranks on April Fools' and not just minigame stuff? I totally get why they switched to minigames (the reaction to the 2011 prank was extremely negative) but I kinda miss the pranks.

It's my understanding that every time someone goes "Where's Season 3?!", the admins decided to extend the release date by 1 day.

Also... Ahh, what happened in 2011? Population reset?

Valentine Z wrote:

Gandoor wrote:'WHER E IS SEASON 3 CARDS?' 'When is season 3 of cards happening?' 'Any update on season 3 of trading cards?'

Look, I get that the NS trading cards are a popular feature and it has been said been said by the admins that will remain a permanent feature but don't y'all think the admin team (who reminder are just volunteers) have more pressing shit to do than work on the new season of the April Fools' feature from 2018? I'm not saying it'll never happen but come on.

As a random aside, who else remembers when NationStates would play actual pranks on April Fools' and not just minigame stuff? I totally get why they switched to minigames (the reaction to the 2011 prank was extremely negative) but I kinda miss the pranks.

It's my understanding that every time someone goes "Where's Season 3?!", the admins decided to extend the release date by 1 day.

Also... Ahh, what happened in 2011? Population reset?

Nah, the 2011 prank was hacking. You logged in and it said there had been like over 350 failed login attempts since you last visited, your motto appeared to have been changed to something like 'HAXXORED!! Haha try using a better password next time!', and the last message on the RMB appeared to be some inane spammy message posted by your account (which, if you tried to delete would then have an 'April Fools!' popup box)

Sure, looking at it now, it is blatantly obvious that it was just a prank, for various reasons:
1. There's only a limit number of times someone can attempt (and fail) to log in to a nation before it completely locks you out of logging in at all for a certain period of time
2. Why would the 'hackers' mock you for having a 'weak password' if it took them over 350 tries to get into your nation?
3. Why is the only thing the 'hackers' did was change your motto to make fun of you and make one inane message in the RMB? Surely, a hacker would try to do something genuinely bad like change your password (and delete your email address), so you could no longer login to your nation (or recover its password), maybe go on the forums and start flaming and trolling to get your account DEAT'd, or (for the really unsavory hackers) spam porn, or worse, in order for you to be made DOS by the mods.

But if you just log in and see all that shit, your first response isn't going to be 'Hahaha good prank, guys, you really got me', it's gonna be 'Holy shit what the fuck someone hacked me? Holy shit.' and if you go digging into the moderation forum, nearly all the moderation threads made that day were made by people who were genuinely worried that they had gotten hacked, with one user considering legal options to take against the site.

Las Palmeras wrote:Despite being very popular in the movies in these years, I haven't seen a superhero themed nation played straight. As NS is full of nerds of a great many varieties, this is quite puzzling imo.

Depends on how you define superhero themed I guess. If JoJo counts there was a JoJo nation a few months which was mostly known for hijacking an FT war thread with JoJo antics before getting kicked for general creepiness. I've seen a bunch of nations fielding Strike Witches in their military too (most notably ABH) if those count as well.

I had an idea for an FFT magical girl nation a while back (based around a reclusive AGI superintelligence collective granting certain people "magic powers" for use as avatars) but never got around to it.

Qhevak wrote:Depends on how you define superhero themed I guess. If JoJo counts there was a JoJo nation a few months which was mostly known for hijacking an FT war thread with JoJo antics before getting kicked for general creepiness. I've seen a bunch of nations fielding Strike Witches in their military too (most notably ABH) if those count as well.

first one is AotI, right?

I had an idea for an FFT magical girl nation a while back (based around a reclusive AGI superintelligence collective granting certain people "magic powers" for use as avatars) but never got around to it.

not sure whether that's a blessing or a curse.

Gandoor wrote:...But if you just log in and see all that shit, your first response isn't going to be 'Hahaha good prank, guys, you really got me', it's gonna be 'Holy shit what the fuck someone hacked me? Holy shit.' and if you go digging into the moderation forum, nearly all the moderation threads made that day were made by people who were genuinely worried that they had gotten hacked, with one user considering legal options to take against the site.

ns being salty over jokes isn't just limited to people ranting about Max flipping off border controls for five minutes for Z-Day this year, it seems.

Kiu Ghesik wrote:

Gandoor wrote:...But if you just log in and see all that shit, your first response isn't going to be 'Hahaha good prank, guys, you really got me', it's gonna be 'Holy shit what the fuck someone hacked me? Holy shit.' and if you go digging into the moderation forum, nearly all the moderation threads made that day were made by people who were genuinely worried that they had gotten hacked, with one user considering legal options to take against the site.

ns being salty over jokes isn't just limited to people ranting about Max flipping off border controls for five minutes for Z-Day this year, it seems.

TBH it (the hacking prank) is a pretty shitty prank, especially if you are someone who has been the victim of hacking before or you're one of those people who use the same exact password for every website (don't do this).

Kiu Ghesik wrote:

Qhevak wrote:Depends on how you define superhero themed I guess. If JoJo counts there was a JoJo nation a few months which was mostly known for hijacking an FT war thread with JoJo antics before getting kicked for general creepiness. I've seen a bunch of nations fielding Strike Witches in their military too (most notably ABH) if those count as well.

first one is AotI, right?

Yeah, Il Passione from that thread. The JoJo characters are still in the RP under mod control, which has lead to lots of Discord discussion regarding how to kill them all as fast as possible.

Qhevak wrote:

Kiu Ghesik wrote:first one is AotI, right?

Yeah, Il Passione from that thread. The JoJo characters are still in the RP under mod control, which has lead to lots of Discord discussion regarding how to kill them all as fast as possible.

idk why but the idea of people debating the quickest and most efficient way to kill off a character is the most amusing thing I've seen for a week.

nice.

Gandoor wrote:

Kiu Ghesik wrote:ns being salty over jokes isn't just limited to people ranting about Max flipping off border controls for five minutes for Z-Day this year, it seems.

TBH it (the hacking prank) is a pretty shitty prank, especially if you are someone who has been the victim of hacking before or you're one of those people who use the same exact password for every website (don't do this).

yeah, it's not really in good taste, but still- ns does have a history of overreacting to this sort of thing, as far as I can tell.

Qhevak wrote:

Las Palmeras wrote:Despite being very popular in the movies in these years, I haven't seen a superhero themed nation played straight. As NS is full of nerds of a great many varieties, this is quite puzzling imo.

Depends on how you define superhero themed I guess. If JoJo counts there was a JoJo nation a few months which was mostly known for hijacking an FT war thread with JoJo antics before getting kicked for general creepiness. I've seen a bunch of nations fielding Strike Witches in their military too (most notably ABH) if those count as well.

I had an idea for an FFT magical girl nation a while back (based around a reclusive AGI superintelligence collective granting certain people "magic powers" for use as avatars) but never got around to it.

Huh. Tbh, I was thinking about Western superheroes...people in funny pajamas and capes and the like. But as many others have pointed, the focus on them as individuals absorbs worldbuilding efforts. And from what I've seen, most of us aren't interested in the matter.

Don't want to sound judgmental, but I'm unsurprised the JoJo fanbase was up to peak comedy again.

South Reinkalistan wrote:

Gandoor wrote:TBH it (the hacking prank) is a pretty shitty prank, especially if you are someone who has been the victim of hacking before or you're one of those people who use the same exact password for every website (don't do this).

I disagree, a rule: the pranks which make the most people flip their shit are generally the funniest

didn't know you were the dude who got fuckin wasted for pulling a toy gun on someone in bumfuck nowhere, usa, rein.

South Reinkalistan wrote:

Kiu Ghesik wrote:didn't know you were the dude who got fuckin wasted for pulling a toy gun on someone in bumfuck nowhere, usa, rein.

can you please expound on the context for this i'm being really absent minded today and i'm not sure what you mean

can't recall the story precisely, but some wannabe """prank""" yter in either kentucky or tennessee pulled a toy gun on someone and tried to stick 'em up for the """prank""".

"""prank""" """victim""" was not informed of prank beforehand. """prank""" """victim""" had an actual gun.
predictable results ensued.

Gandoor wrote:

Valentine Z wrote:It's my understanding that every time someone goes "Where's Season 3?!", the admins decided to extend the release date by 1 day.

Also... Ahh, what happened in 2011? Population reset?

Nah, the 2011 prank was hacking. You logged in and it said there had been like over 350 failed login attempts since you last visited, your motto appeared to have been changed to something like 'HAXXORED!! Haha try using a better password next time!', and the last message on the RMB appeared to be some inane spammy message posted by your account (which, if you tried to delete would then have an 'April Fools!' popup box)

Sure, looking at it now, it is blatantly obvious that it was just a prank, for various reasons:
1. There's only a limit number of times someone can attempt (and fail) to log in to a nation before it completely locks you out of logging in at all for a certain period of time
2. Why would the 'hackers' mock you for having a 'weak password' if it took them over 350 tries to get into your nation?
3. Why is the only thing the 'hackers' did was change your motto to make fun of you and make one inane message in the RMB? Surely, a hacker would try to do something genuinely bad like change your password (and delete your email address), so you could no longer login to your nation (or recover its password), maybe go on the forums and start flaming and trolling to get your account DEAT'd, or (for the really unsavory hackers) spam porn, or worse, in order for you to be made DOS by the mods.

But if you just log in and see all that shit, your first response isn't going to be 'Hahaha good prank, guys, you really got me', it's gonna be 'Holy shit what the fuck someone hacked me? Holy shit.' and if you go digging into the moderation forum, nearly all the moderation threads made that day were made by people who were genuinely worried that they had gotten hacked, with one user considering legal options to take against the site.

And from that day forward, maybe that is why NS stopped doing these. Though I mean, there can definitely be other ways to prank the users and one that people can have a good laugh about.

Legal Action - the worst phrase to ever hear for just about anyone.

South Reinkalistan wrote:

Kiu Ghesik wrote:can't recall the story precisely, but some wannabe """prank""" yter in either kentucky or tennessee pulled a toy gun on someone and tried to stick 'em up for the """prank""".

"""prank""" """victim""" was not informed of prank beforehand. """prank""" """victim""" had an actual gun.
predictable results ensued.

at that point it ceases to be a prank, it's now a social experiment™️ suicide by idiocy

upon such a basis i am not to be held liable for my earlier statement

FTFY

Headlines: Female Tourist Released to Nation of Origin After Arrest for Indecent Exposure | Records From Season 5 of Radio Show "The Pious Man" Now For Sale | Actor Terrijorr From Hit Radio Show "The Pious Man" is Released, All Charges Dropped | New Sanitary Laws Go Into Effect | Mor-Leaf Prices Rise By .03%

Since this is relevant to current NS events (not the porn spam DOS troll):
Whenever there's a problem affecting every user (like the current broken search function), everybody deciding to chime into the thread about the problem with 'It's happening to me too!', especially after a mod chimes in with 'We don't need any more 'Me too!" posts, we know this is a thing' post.

I mean I understand doing it early in the thread, cause that way it helps the mods and admins know that this isn't a problem affecting just one user, but I'm pretty sure after like 10 replies, they don't need any more.

Gandoor wrote:Since this is relevant to current NS events (not the porn spam DOS troll):
Whenever there's a problem affecting every user (like the current broken search function), everybody deciding to chime into the thread about the problem with 'It's happening to me too!', especially after a mod chimes in with 'We don't need any more 'Me too!" posts, we know this is a thing' post.

I mean I understand doing it early in the thread, cause that way it helps the mods and admins know that this isn't a problem affecting just one user, but I'm pretty sure after like 10 replies, they don't need any more.

This sorta thing is why I wish the NationStates forum had like a "like" or an "upvote" mechanism, so that way people can give their affirmation in a small way that doesn't eat up post space. You can see a buncha people "like" the post and gather, "Oh, they probably have the same technical problem."

Caveat: just "like"/"upvote," and no "downvote." A la Spacebattles, if you've ever been on that forum. It's just a tiny thing in the bottom corner of a post. It lets you say "I agree" or "that's cool" or "I love that reply" without clogging threads. Downvotes are less communicative*, so downvotes need not be included.

Not 100% sure if this really would be a good idea, but it comes to my mind when I so often see a post and want to say, "Yo, I really dig that," but then I worry about derailing a thread with /skips and accidentally causing someone to get skipped, which would be the worst "reward" for having written a post I liked! ^~^;

Stories From Baizou

"A Revolutionary Compromise," starring Meikawa Tomoko. | More to come.

South Reinkalistan wrote:I don't think NS' forum hosting can support it, but I agree that upvotes/downvotes could be really cool. (it might get a bit circlejerky on NSG... but who's ever cared about them? )

Well, there actually are several extensions to phpBB (the software that NS uses for the forums, likely because it's completely free and open source) that can add a 'like' feature to forums when installed buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut these forums use a hella outdated and modified version of the software, so you can see why the admins have said 'no' to any suggestions to add extensions to the forums as they are now.

Of course, could they do this whenever they decide that enough is enough and actually upgrade the forum software? Maybe, but that upgrade is a loooooooooooong way off since they've said it might require days, or even weeks, of downtime since they'd need to make sure all the custom modifications to the software (the things that connect the forum to the gameside stuff) won't break because of the updates.

Personally, I hope they do upgrade the forums, if only because current versions of phpBB have responsive design so these boards will actually be usable on phones.

Dayganistan wrote:Nations that are evil and edgy for the sake of being evil and edgy seem to be very often accompanied by poor RP and writing skill. Why can't we have a well written DPRK type nation for once?

You should read my old posts as Munkchester/Munkcestrian Republic/Munkcestrian RepubIic if you want that.

The "Your Leader's Opinion on AN's Leader" threads look like an anger management therapy session. Ngl, I think most of the interactions there are IC verbal smackdowns.

...

I'm not complaining though, it's fun to watch.

Las Palmeras wrote:The "Your Leader's Opinion on AN's Leader" threads look like an anger management therapy session. Ngl, I think most of the interactions there are IC verbal smackdowns.

...

I'm not complaining though, it's fun to watch.

It's fun to take part in, too ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)